Bruce Mau

Bruce Mau is a Canadian designer and the founder of the studio, Bruce Mau Design.  He studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design and since graduation has been recognized as one of the most innovative voices in the design world.  He works with print design and production, conceptual programming, environmental signage, wayfinding systems, and much more.  His laundry list of credentials is probably due in part to one of the beliefs listed in his incomplete manifesto, a collection of beliefs, strategies, and motivations about how he approaches every project.  Number 40 on this list states "Avoid fields." and it is here where Bruce advisees creatives to move through many fields of study, in fact saying it is our job to do so. There are many works that Bruce is known for within the design community, but I think that his most influential steps have been his conceptual thinking, such as the incomplete manifesto, or his presentation, "Massive Change," where he asks the question, "What if we could do anything," and What if life itself became a design project?"  The then answers back, "Now that we can do anything, what will we do?"  For designers I think this is both extremely important to examine, and also imperative that we at least make a search for the answer, or as Bruce has put it in his manifesto, to put the process over the product.  

I am personally focusing on number 6 in the incomplete manifesto, "Capture Accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions."  Working in the design process on my projects produces a lot of wrong answers and I need to work on those wrong answers helping me generate new questions to help me find the answer I am looking for.